A customary method of machining sheet metal involves sheet metal parts initially being produced by cutting from a blank sheet, a skeleton surrounding the sheet metal parts being produced and also connecting webs between the sheet metal parts and the skeleton which are referred to as micro-joints. The micro-joints represent a temporary connection between the sheet metal parts and the skeleton and thereby ensure that after the cutting of the blank sheet, the sheet metal parts and the skeleton can be handled as a unit. In the case of the method known in the prior art, the cutting of the blank sheet is followed by a forming of the sheet metal parts produced during the blank sheet machining as an additional machining process. Forming means that the area across which the sheet metal parts extend in the plane of the machined blank sheet is reduced and the micro-joints, by means of which the sheet metal parts are connected to the skeleton, are lengthened and thereby plastically deformed. The gap between the formed sheet metal parts and the skeleton surrounding them is permanently greater than the gap between the unformed sheet metal parts and the skeleton.